Recovery, yes recovery, is very misunderstood by some
boxing trainers. It is sometimes thought of as a novelty or
even pampering of a fighter. Taking a day off or easing up
in training can seem like an act of weakness to the go hard
or go home foolish trainers. If they only knew what they
were doing to their fighters bodies. When you prepare a
boxer for a fight you are supposed to make them better then
ever, not the other way around.
Most training camps run for 4-6 weeks of intense training.
If the fighter shows up to camp in bad shape, he can just
end up surviving the camp and gain no significant benefits.
This is do to the high and hard amount of training he will
partake in to get his weight down to get in shape. So the
fighter starves, runs all these miles and works the bag for
many rounds yet no recovery is usually planned. The next
thought is jump on the scale and check the weight, if the
fighter is over weight. Even if a fighter isn't that bad
out of shape, they are still being told that the other
fighter is training even harder so they burn themselves
even more by picking it back up.
The obvious solution is to monitor the fighters training
readiness when applying intense bouts of training. If the
fighter comes to training wore out, why beat a tired horse
even more. It's not weakness the fighter is showing, it's
the fighters body telling the trainer something. The
trainer needs to pay close attention to his boxer and at
the same time implement recovery modalities after the
training to ensure proper training readiness/freshness. The
fighter will then show up to the next training session
rejuvanated and ready to train hard. You are then building
the fighter up and not breaking them down.
Again, Why beat a tired horse? I'll repeat this again too,
naive boxing trainers look at over training as not training
hard enough. This has got to stop. We know what happens
with this scenario. If the team would monitor training
readiness and use recovery techniques such as massage and
proper post workout nutrition, they would obviously be
building the fighting beast they seek to have ready at
fight night. In training we are only as good as we recover.
If we don't recover we don't progress. Fighters mustn't
make it to the fight by just surviving the training camp.
Factoring in recovery ensures this won't happen.
Here are some recovery methods that can be successfully
applied to the fighters training: massage, foam rolling,
contrast showers, sauna, sufficient sleep, whirl pool, and
post workout nutrition. Mineral and epson salt baths work
well too. Nutrition on a whole determines how well a
fighter can train and recover. If the fighter is bloody
starving himself to make weight, that's the fight itself
and it'll cost the fighter the fight.
Monitoring training intensity is key to recovery also and
allows the fighter not to peak too early for the fight.
It's better to take a day off or ease up in training a bit
than to have peaked two weeks or so before the fight! The
fighters who have to take off all the pounds and come to
camp out of shape can peak 3 weeks before a fight! This is
the reason they can look so flat during the fight. Look
deeper and the truth comes out.
I hope this article has shed some light on why applying
recovery techniques and modalities in boxing training can
determine the success or apparent early downfall of the
fighter. The new motto of enlightened, experienced trainers
is "Less Is More". Based on their fighters performances who
follow this new slogan, who can disagree?
----------------------------------------------------
Grab a 21 day trial membership to
http://www.boxingperformance.com/ while it still lats. Rob
Pilger is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
and Level II USA Boxing Coach. and creator of the
http://www.theultimateboxingworkout.com/fighters.html
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